Search Grants & Funding

The Emerging Gamemakers Fund offers flexible support to emerging independent games practitioners as well as established gamemakers who are interested in exploring creative and artistic experimentation within their practice.  

It can fund the creation of a prototype or the completion and release of a micro-scale game. The program will run as a series of rounds from financial year 2023/24 until financial year 2026/27.

Eligibility

To be eligible:

• an individual applicant must be an Australian citizen or Australian resident, being a person who is lawfully domiciled in Australia, and who has actually been in Australia, continuously or intermittently, for more than one half of the year immediately preceding the application.
• an applicant company must be an incorporated company carrying on business in Australia, with its central management and control in Australia.

Eligible Projects

This program is for projects that are at the pre-production or production stage of development, and have:

• demonstrate creative innovation and experimentation in gamemaking
• represent or are developed by or from teams with diverse and underrepresented backgrounds and experiences
• target underserved audiences

Screen Australia can only fund Australian projects. The project must be under the key creative control of Australian citizens or permanent residents and be predominantly developed in Australia. Projects do not have to have an Australian theme or be set in Australia to be eligible. 

Projects must be for a digital game platform, including (but not limited to) PC, mobile, consoles, and VR. 

Internships assist practitioners whose careers would benefit from an attachment to a person, production or organisation. This program is designed to assist the career development of talented filmmakers who can demonstrate a strong commitment to a career in the film industry. This is not an entry-level scheme.

An internship may take many forms and involve features, documentaries, animation, interactive digital media, TV drama or comedy series. For example:

• a director might attach themselves to a more experienced director on a production
• a producer might spend time in a TV production house to observe the script development and creative management process, or they may wish to work with a more senior producer developing a financing plan for a project of their own
• an animation filmmaker may wish to enhance specific technical or creative skills
• a filmmaker may want to hire a more experienced producer or director as a consultant on their own funded production.

 Who can apply?

The potential intern must:

• meet the general eligibility requirements of Screen Australia’s Terms of Trade
• be an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Australian
• only apply for the internship funding twice in their career.

No minimum credits are required, but previous work will be considered in assessing the applicant’s commitment to screen storytelling as a career.

The International Finance fund provides support to Australian projects with a very high level of global appeal, to assist them to develop pitching materials and strategy, in order to best attract international partnerships and finance in the current market. 

It is open to long form drama and documentary projects on any platform which are market ready, have undergone a successful development process and can demonstrate development funding from an arm’s length commercial partner.

Applications for this fund are open to anyone who:

• meets all requirements and conditions in our Terms of Trade
• is an Australian individual or team.  Co-productions may also apply with an application from the Australian Company.
• has a market-ready, long-form project on any platform
• has undergone significant creative development and has the key creative team attached
• has a project that is uniquely and culturally identifiable as Australian and is also bold, ambitious and has universal appeal
• controls the rights and has meaningful creative control of the project
• can evidence successful development process and funding from an arm’s length commercial partner (i.e. a substantial and well-known international or Australian commercial entity with an effective track record on similar projects, for example, a commissioning platform, broadcaster, local or international distributor, studio or production company of substance) and/or Screen Australia where their development funding will have been fully acquitted as a pre-condition of eligibility.

Please refer to the ACMA guidelines for the definition of a documentary note: Screen Australia does not invest in programs such as reality or magazine television, light entertainment, panel or travel shows, infotainment, current affairs, cooking, ‘how to’, sports, corporate, training, games, extensions to film or TV, or community access programs or projects whose primary market is the education sector.

Long form is defined as a single feature project (scripted or unscripted) of at least 85 minutes duration, an episodic project of at least 3 commercial hours, or an online project of at least 45 minutes total series duration.  XR (Extended Reality) projects can be any length. 

Market ready means the project must be creatively sound, have a realistic estimated budget (or budget range) and finance plan (or plans), and at a stage of sourcing finance, partners and/or pre sales. It will have undergone significant creative development and have the key creative team attached. The stage of development might vary dependent on content type, intended platform of release, and the proposed strategy.

Through the Online Production program Screen Australia invests in the production of scripted, children’s and documentary projects that take risks and push the envelope of storytelling in the online space.

This fund is aimed at lower-budget productions which may present talent development or project development opportunities. Online production values these benefits ahead of commercial gain, so it is expected that above-the-line fees and company overheads are budgeted modestly in accordance with those aims.

In most cases this fund applies to projects releasing on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, as well as Virtual Reality (and other Extended Reality) projects. Screen Australia recognises this part of the industry is fast-changing, so other release platforms may be eligible.

Applications cannot be from individuals, and must be from a team that includes at least two key creatives covering the roles of Writer, Director and Producer. At least one of the key creatives must have a credit in an equivalent role on a comparable project that has been publicly released at the time of application.

Screen Australia is now accepting applications for events, conferences and activities which exhibit unique benefits to the Australian screen industry.

These events must demonstrate an understanding of changes in audience engagement and how content is financed, made and delivered. Applications must demonstrate how they will have an impact on their audience/participants, or within their particular area of focus.

The aims of the program are to: 

• create opportunities through new, original and inclusive approaches to the industry that will expand networks and grow the Australian screen industry
• support impactful events which are also evolving to be relevant to future audiences and the screen industry
• provide opportunities for professional development/business growth.

Screen Australia is interested in receiving applications from organisers of industry events which are innovative and forward-focused, with plans to engage practitioners in the rapidly changing screen sector.